Navision plots new course to success

By ADAM GIFFORD

Danish business management software company Navision is starting to carve out a larger share of the New Zealand market, after broadening its scope through a merger with fellow Danish company Damguard.

Asia Pacific vice-president Garth Laird said most of the 59 clients Navision had won since setting up here in 1999 were small and mid-market companies using the Attain product, but it was starting to win larger sites with the Axapta suite brought over in the merger.

Navision software is sold through its implementation partners, who do any necessary customisation. It runs on Microsoft's Windows NT and Windows 2000 platforms.

"It's one of those products where you pay the right amount to get an 85 per cent fit, and then work with partners for the rest," Mr Laird said.

He said the enterprise resource planning (ERP) software market was tough. Most companies had experienced difficult or failed projects over the years and were wary of sales consultants bearing unfamiliar acronyms.

Navision's customers include ACNielsen, Sellotape, Village Force Hoyts Cinemas, Westland Dairy, United Fisheries, Masterpet and New Zealand Yachts. It has also picked up Chequer Packaging and Environment Canterbury.

Environment Canterbury chief financial officer Neil Mayo said the regional council ran a project-based accounting system, measuring up to 300 simultaneous projects against the budgets allocated by the council.

"We had it customised so we can put in our annual plan with key outcomes and tasks, and measure progress through quarterly updates," Mr Mayo said.

He said it replaced a mix of Access databases and Excel spreadsheets. "One of the selling points was that, being an environmental agency, we wanted to reduce the amount of paper we generate."

Getting rid of paper was also one of the reasons Wellington-based pet supplies distributor Masterpet chose Navision Attain.

Financial controller Graham Stirling said the company, which has 120 staff, was using the DOS-based CBA financials and wanted to upgrade.

"We also wanted a system which combined financials with warehouse management, because we could see the benefits of combining them," Mr Stirling said.